Chapter Twelve: The Devil Outwits

Ji Feichen stood at a distance, waiting for the thunder to subside before returning. Amidst the ruins, a man gleaming with golden light stood tall. Above Qian Chu’s head hovered a golden bell, its surface etched with cracks as its radiance faded. Whether it was Yin Thunder or Gui Water Thunder, both had been forged from the Nether Sect’s thunder pearls. If not for this treasure absorbing most of the blast, Qian Chu would likely have perished long ago. Even now, his condition was dire—his body was covered in wounds, with many areas charred black by lightning.

“It’s rare to find such a treasure, yet you’ve wasted it so carelessly, senior brother,” Ji Feichen sighed softly. “If you’d simply taken the antidote earlier and gifted me this treasure as thanks, wouldn’t that have been a win-win?” As he spoke, the Demon Dragon Mace slipped from his sleeve. “Since you insist on being difficult, I have no choice but to injure your soul, delaying your reincarnation.”

Qian Chu said nothing. His hair and eyebrows were completely burned away, and his body was laid bare. Within, a force of pure yang was mending his wounds. Seeing the Demon Dragon Mace in Ji Feichen’s hand, Qian Chu struck first, launching a fist toward Ji Feichen’s face.

Ji Feichen raised an eyebrow and stepped back, but the mace met Qian Chu’s fist head-on. The instant weapon met flesh, a tremendous force surged up the length of the mace, threatening to overwhelm Ji Feichen. His expression grew grave; with a nudge of his power, the mace responded with a dragon’s roar, shattering the force. Ji Feichen retreated three steps, putting distance between them.

“Where did you get such monstrous strength, senior brother? I recall you weren’t known for physical prowess.” Ji Feichen narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Qian Chu, whose muscles bulged and whose energy surged rapidly within.

“Is this some secret art to unlock your potential?” Ji Feichen guessed, stepping forward again, swinging his mace in wide, powerful arcs as they clashed.

Ji Feichen’s fighting style was fierce and domineering. Seizing on a moment of distraction, he aimed a direct blow at the crown of Qian Chu’s head.

Bang—

Sparks flew at the resounding impact. Incredibly, Qian Chu neither dodged nor invoked spells; he simply took the strike with his bare scalp. His face twisted in a grimace, but as the mace struck, his fingers curled into claws, lunging for Ji Feichen’s chest.

Ji Feichen twisted his waist, dodging swiftly.

After a dozen exchanges, Ji Feichen finally understood. “Hmph! Is it the Dragon-Tiger Transformation Pill, the Xuanyang Jade Might Pill, or perhaps the Vajra Dragon Elephant Pill? For senior brother to match me blow for blow, you must have taken some rare and potent elixir.”

Qian Chu remained silent, holding his breath to keep the medicine’s power from dissipating, hoping to defeat Ji Feichen before it waned. The Xuanyang Jade Might Pill he’d consumed wasn’t a demonic sect relic, but a righteous Daoist elixir—acquired through a clandestine deal with a disciple of the Pill Sect, who’d sought his help to eliminate a rival. This pill could temporarily raise Qian Chu to the late stage of Mortal Shedding and sustain his life as long as he didn’t exhale the medicinal breath. With this pill and his life-bound artifact, he’d barely survived the explosion.

As long as the pill’s power endured, his life would not fail. Using a strategy of trading injuries, Qian Chu forced Ji Feichen back step by step.

“It seems the Demon Dragon Mace alone won’t suffice.” Ji Feichen flipped his palm, and twenty-four beams of spiritual light shot forth. “Go!”

Qian Chu, intent on pressing his advantage, was suddenly blinded by a burst of brilliance from Ji Feichen’s hand. Even a cultivator couldn’t keep his eyes open against such radiance. Instinctively, he shut his eyes—and instantly felt himself bound, as Ji Feichen transformed the Azure Tide Pearl into a string that tightly coiled around him.

With the pill’s power still surging, Qian Chu struggled fiercely, exerting monstrous strength to break free. One by one, the pearls began to loosen. Sensing danger, Ji Feichen stepped forward and clapped his hands together. “Combine!”

Immediately, the Azure Tide Pearl underwent further transformation. Vast white mist billowed forth, and Qian Chu found himself trapped in an endless blue sea beneath twenty-four full moons. The ocean was boundless, the sky infinite, all shifting and illusory. This was the true domain of the Azure Tide Pearl—it concealed a world within, able to open a water realm with the power of the twenty-four seasonal qi. This was the pearl’s ultimate power: the Tide of the Azure Sea.

Ji Feichen stood unmoving, twenty-four pearls dancing about his hand. At their center, a pool of azure water shimmered, with Qian Chu’s figure adrift within.

“Farewell, senior brother,” Ji Feichen murmured, clenching his fist. In the boundless sea, waves surged and crashed, transforming the once-calm surface into a tidal cataclysm that drowned Qian Chu in an instant.

With his last breath, the medicinal power dissipated. Qian Chu’s life ended in the Azure Tide, his soul drifting out from that world. As his spirit entered the Netherworld, Ji Feichen, still dissatisfied, flicked a thread of black fiendish energy to taint the soul, ensuring it would linger in the underworld for countless years before reincarnating.

Collecting the pearls, Ji Feichen tidied the battlefield, took Qian Chu’s spatial leopard pouch, and sought rest in a nearby cave.

“The Azure Tide Pearl’s ultimate power truly drains one’s strength entirely,” he reflected, feeling his power depleted after creating a world within the water.

Resting in the cave, he examined Qian Chu’s pouch—a bag made from the hide of the Divine Purple Dust Leopard, a beast capable of traversing space, whose skin could be fashioned into spatial pouches. Ji Feichen’s own was such a pouch, worn at the waist, holding whatever one might need.

Inside Qian Chu’s pouch were scattered pills and a memory stone, recording his transaction with the Pill Sect disciple.

“Pillcloud Sect? That’s the Daoist school famed for alchemy. No wonder he had such life-saving elixirs—they were gifts from the orthodox sects.” Searching through the vials, Ji Feichen found a bottle containing two remaining Xuanyang Jade Might Pills.

But ever cautious, he resolved to check if the contents matched the labels at a later time.

He meditated, recovering his strength. As the sun rose high, a graceful figure appeared at the cave’s entrance.

Xiao Ying, having pursued Luo Qingyi and made a tidy profit without taking her life, had returned to find Ji Feichen depleted and meditating. “Now that his energy is low, it’s the perfect time to strike,” she thought, but sensed that Ji Feichen remained partially alert.

She hesitated, then approached with a sweet smile to test him. “Senior brother, are you well?” Her sleeve concealed a dagger, waiting for an opening.

Ji Feichen, seated and cultivating, didn’t look up but replied lazily, “On Tiger Ridge, I didn’t just find one Moon Union Herb. Do you know why I didn’t use it? Guess.”

Inside the cave, an eerie blue mist had spread without anyone noticing. As it thickened, the medicinal power of the Moon Union Herb within Xiao Ying began to change.

Her expression shifted sharply as she realized the truth. “Yellow Vein’s Golden Toad Soul-Dividing Incense?” Combined with Moon Union Herb, this incense stirs lustful fires within a living being, compelling them to seek union. It was a byproduct discovered during the Yellow Vein’s sand refining. Ji Feichen had deliberately withheld the herb as a countermeasure against her.

Understanding the trap, Xiao Ying acted swiftly before the change took hold, retrieving a white-blue elixir jade from her spatial bracelet. She glared, her voice tinged with anger. “Senior brother, you use such despicable tricks against me. Did you think I wouldn’t be prepared?”

Her cultivation included several methods to suppress inner desires, having faced such trouble before.

“So if this was your trump card, then I’m the superior one,” she said, confident in her victory.

Ji Feichen, having recovered some strength, couldn’t help but laugh at her smugness. “Junior sister, I picked the Moon Union Herb for you, and you dared to take it?”

“Of course, a gift from senior brother must be accepted—” She stopped mid-sentence, her face draining of color as realization dawned. She hurriedly withdrew, examining herself.

“Let this be a lesson, junior sister: never accept what others hand you without care.”

Her complexion shifted from pale to ashen as she stared at her fingers—her right hand tinged blue where she’d taken the herb, with three or four black grains appearing at her fingertips. The poison was spreading through her body.

“Cinnabar? Is this the Five-Poison Sand?” Her heart sank. From start to finish, she’d been outmaneuvered by Ji Feichen.

“And laced with Shadowless Sand,” he added with a cold smile. “Otherwise, with your cunning, how could I have deceived you?” The cinnabar, refined by Liang Chuming, was finally put to use. When Ji Feichen picked the herb, he’d hidden specks of the powder, smaller than dust, under Xiao Ying’s fingernails. Now, he triggered the poison, leaving her limp and unable to restrain the fire within. Flushed and breathless, she collapsed at the entrance.

“I am merciful by nature, junior sister. Don’t worry—this poison won’t kill you, it’s merely a paralytic. But for you, the situation seems rather awkward.” His gaze was cold and unfeeling as he watched her struggle, her lips moist, eyes bright with desire, yet he remained unmoved.

The Black Vein’s “White Bone Visualization” method’s initial stage was “Rouged Skeleton.” In Ji Feichen’s eyes, all beauties were but skeletons; he could see not only the flesh but the very bones beneath. This perspective, once repulsive and unsettling, he had now fully accepted. He calmly appraised Xiao Ying’s skeleton.

“Junior sister has fine bones—you’ll grow even taller in the future.” With a smile, he gripped the Demon Dragon Mace.

Suddenly, his expression shifted as a cold gleam flashed. He swung the mace at the cave entrance. “Come out!”

A light laugh answered from outside. “What a vigilant young man! I thought you’d be too distracted by your junior sister to notice me.”

“You entered with her and followed her here. How could I not notice?” Ji Feichen’s words to Xiao Ying had, in truth, been stalling for time against this mysterious newcomer.

Now, with his strength restored and Xiao Ying unconscious, Ji Feichen rose to face the stranger.